A Message from Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

I am glad to report that my appeal to all interested tenured faculty in the position of associate dean has led to an excellent outcome. Margaret Farrar has agreed to serve as associate dean, responsible for general education and its assessment and the first-year curriculum, among other responsibilities.

Our long tradition at Augustana has been to name a tenured faculty member to the role of associate dean, and I am glad to continue that tradition. While I contemplated a national search, in the end the expense of such a search and its likely results--fellow deans have confirmed that such a search would be unlikely to attract more than a handful of candidates--cannot be justified since Margaret is a terrific match for the position.

I am grateful to Margaret for her willingness to step forward. She brings experience in every component of the AGES program as well as considerable administrative experience, as department chair and committee chair among many other responsibilities she has taken on.

Margaret and Nancy Loitz will work together in the months ahead to ensure a smooth transition. Likewise, Margaret and I will host a conversation in the weeks ahead on the program, and she will of course have conversations with colleagues across campus over the coming months.